1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device manufacturing system and electronic device manufacturing method for manufacturing electronic devices which include a conductor pattern formed on a base and a circuit chip electrically connected to the conductor pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices which include a conductor pattern formed on a base such as a printed circuit board and a circuit chip electrically connected to the conductor pattern have been known widely. Such electronic devices are used to control electronic equipment, being incorporated in the electronic equipment, or used as single units to exchange information with the external equipment. As an example of such electronic devices, there have recently been proposed various types of RFID (Radio_Frequency_IDentification) tags which exchange information on a non-contact basis with external equipment exemplified by a reader-writer. As a type of RFID tag, there have been proposed devices which have a conductor pattern (hereinafter referred to simply as an antenna) which, being formed on a base sheet made of plastics or paper, functions as an antenna for radio communications and an IC chip which, being electrically connected with the antenna, conducts wireless communications via the antenna (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-311226, 2000-200332, and 2001-351082). Possibly, this type of RFID tag can be used for identification of goods by being attached to the goods and exchanging information about the goods with external equipment.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a RFID tag.
Part (a) of FIG. 1 shows a top view of an RFID tag 1, Part (b) of FIG. 1 shows a side view of the RFID tag 1 in a longitudinal direction, and Part (c) of FIG. 1 shows an IC chip 11 which is a component of the RFID tag 1. Incidentally, the IC chip 11 uses bumps 11a made of gold or the like as connection terminals, and Part (c) of FIG. 1 shows the bumps 11a upside down compared to Parts (a) and (b) of FIG. 1 to provide a view of a surface on which the bumps 11a are formed.
The RFID tag 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes an antenna 12 formed on a sheet-type base 13 made of a PET film or the like, and an IC chip 11 electrically connected with the antenna 12 via the bumps 11a and bonded to the base 13 with an adhesive.
The IC chip 11 of the RFID tag 1 can communicate and exchange information with external equipment via the antenna 12.
In the example of FIG. 1, the antenna 12 of the RFID tag 1 has a point-asymmetrical shape with two L-shaped patterns placed on both sides of the IC chip 11. In the example of FIG. 1, out of the three bumps 11a shown in Part (c) of FIG. 1, the two bumps 11a_1 are connected to ends of long sides of the respective L-shaped patterns of the antenna 12. Furthermore, in the example of FIG. 1, the IC chip 11 is mounted on the antenna 12 in such an orientation that the remaining one bump 11a_2 will be located opposite to a projecting direction of short sides of the L-shaped patterns of the antenna 12. In this way, in the example of FIG. 1, the IC chip 11 is mounted in an orientation which depends on the projecting direction of the short sides of the L-shaped patterns of the antenna 12 (hereinafter the projecting direction of the short sides will be referred to as orientation of the antenna 12).
As shown in FIG. 1, typical RFID tags include those which have a point-asymmetrical antenna and on which an IC chip is mounted according to the orientation of the antenna. Ingenuity such as described below has been exercised in manufacturing RFID tags equipped with such a point-asymmetrical antenna.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a tag manufacturing system which manufactures RFID tags equipped with a point-asymmetrical antenna.
Incidentally, the RFID tag manufactured in the example in FIG. 2 is the RFID tag 1 shown in FIG. 1.
The tag manufacturing system 100 shown in FIG. 2 manufactures multiple units of the RFID tag 1 using a base roll 13a produced by rolling up a long base sheet large enough to place multiple bases 13.
The tag manufacturing system 100 is equipped with an antenna forming apparatus 110 which performs an antenna forming process (step S101) described below. In the antenna forming process (step S101), first the base roll 13a is loaded on the antenna forming apparatus 110. Then, a pattern forming section 111 of the antenna forming apparatus 110 pulls the base sheet out of the base roll 13a and forms multiple antennas 12 on the base sheet. The pattern forming section 111 places the multiple antennas 12 in two rows on the base sheet by aligning orientations of antenna patterns as shown in FIG. 2. The base sheet with the antennas formed by the pattern forming section 111 is wound by a winding section (not shown) to produce an antenna-bearing roll body 13a_1. Consequently, the base sheet with the antennas formed is delivered to a next process in the form of a roll body which is easy to handle.
Also, the tag manufacturing system 100 is equipped with an IC mounting apparatus 130 which performs an IC chip mounting process (step S103) for mounting an IC chip 11 on each antenna 12 on the base sheet. The IC mounting apparatus 130 in turn is equipped with a mounter 131 which mounts the IC chips 11 on the antennas 12. The mounter 131 is set to mount the IC chips 11 on the antennas in the same orientation as the antennas 12 formed by the pattern forming section 111. This simplifies system architecture. If the antenna-bearing roll body 13a_1 produced by the antenna forming apparatus 110 were loaded as it was on the IC mounting apparatus 130, the antenna-bearing roll body 13a_1 would be turned 180 degrees during the loading, and consequently the orientation of the antennas 12 on the base sheet pulled out of the antenna-bearing roll body 13a_1 would be 180 degrees opposite to the orientation of the antennas 12 on which the IC chips 11 could be mounted by the mounter 131.
To eliminate this inconsistency, the tag manufacturing system 100 is equipped with a rewinder 120 which rewinds the roll body, and after the antenna forming process (step S101), a rewind process (step S102) is performed to rewind the antenna-bearing roll body 13a_1 and thereby obtain an antenna-bearing rewound roll body 13a_2. The orientation of the antennas 12 on the base sheet pulled out of the antenna-bearing rewound roll body 13a_2 coincides with the orientation of the antennas 12 on which the IC chips 11 can be mounted by the mounter 131. This makes it possible to mount the IC chips 11 normally in the IC chip mounting process (step S103).
Also, the tag manufacturing system 100 is equipped with a post-processing apparatus 140 which performs a post-process (step S105) for working up the base sheet on which the IC chips have been mounted into finished RFID tags 1 by sealing, cutting, and the like. To simplify system architecture, as in the case of the mounter 131, the post-processing apparatus 140 is set to perform post-processing of the base sheet on which the antennas 12 are arranged in the orientation in which they are formed by the pattern forming section 111. Then, the IC mounting apparatus 130 winds the base sheet and thereby obtains an IC-chip-carrying roll body 13a 3 to make it easy to deliver the base sheet on which the IC chips have been mounted to a next process, as in the case of the antenna forming apparatus 110. For this reason, after the IC chip mounting process (step S103), a rewind process (step S104) is performed to rewind the IC-chip-carrying roll body 13a_3 by means of the rewinder 120 and thereby obtain an IC-chip-carrying rewound roll body 13a_4.
In this way, in the tag manufacturing system shown in FIG. 2, the antennas are arranged in the same orientation when handled by the pattern forming section 111, IC mounting apparatus 130, and post-processing apparatus 140, to simplify system architecture. Furthermore, the base sheet is delivered in the form of a roll body between manufacturing processes for ease of delivery, and the inconsistency arising as a result is eliminated by the rewind process performed by the rewinder 120.
However, rewind processes such as described above are troublesome for users and cause operation delays during manufacture of RFID tags 1. Also, an increased number of rewind processes will increase loads on the antennas 12 or IC chips 11 on the base sheet and may cause problems such as separation of IC chips 11 or breakage of antennas 12 and IC chips 11.
Although problems which may be caused by an increased number of rewind processes during manufacture has been described by taking RFID tags as an example, these problems are common to electronic devices which include a conductor pattern formed on a base such as a printed circuit board and a circuit chip electrically connected to the conductor pattern.